Efforts to rescue Waffles were spot-on: Letters to the editor

Sunday

Mar 17, 2019 at 2:00 AM

In response to the person who felt that Waffles (or any other animal ) was not worth rescuing. Really? It is obvious that you have never loved or even owned an animal of any sort. Animals are family and are not expendable. All animals have the right to be searched for and rescued as much as any person.

As far as Waffles being unleashed, everyone makes a mistake once in a while. Let's hope your letter was just an insensitive mistake on your part.

— Carol Kosobucki, Erie

Projections prove Pa.

must reform tax system

The Pennsylvania "Five Year Economic and Budget Outlook" published by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office paints a daunting future. Those touting property tax elimination as a way to reverse this trend have long cited demographic and budget imbalance information in the report.

The report projects these demographic changes from 2017 to 2025. The population from age 0 to 19 will decline by 0.5 percent. The 20-to-64 group will decline by 0.4 percent.

The 65-to-79 group will increase by 3 percent; the 80-and-over segment will increase by 1.5 percent.

By 2025, deaths will outnumber births in our state. Thus, population growth will lean heavily on international migration.

The report projects structural state budget imbalances averaging $1.6 billion through fiscal year 2024-25. How will the shortfall be funded?

One can deduce that a declining working-age population, coupled with an increasing retired-age population, results in less income tax revenue. This is contributing to the structural budget imbalance. One can reason that retirement income will be on the block for a new source of revenue.

The structural imbalance could have been prevented had action been taken years ago. Smart business policy like the property tax shifts in Senate Bill 76 and soon-to-be-issued House Bill 13 would immediately increase the attractiveness for business location and expansion as cited by the Pennsylvania IFO in its analysis of SB76.

This is step one to keeping our youth here in Pennsylvania, by creating employment opportunity. Removing property taxes from homes is the second step, making homes affordable and Pennsylvania a desirable place to raise a family. Taxing retirement income may be collateral damage to resolving our structural imbalance.

— Daniel Hotchkiss, Erie

Waffles' ordeal could have

been prevented by leash

I was extremely happy when a Presque Isle visitor found Waffles. The family endured enormous stress. Volunteers searched day and evening, and community services joined the search.

My thought: All of the stress, time, effort and cost could have been avoided had the dog's caretaker complied with Presque Isle State Park's leash law.

— Judy Emling, Erie

Trump's Bible autographs

could have gone sideways

We recently witnessed a modern-day miracle in Alabama. The Bibles the president autographed didn't burst into flame from his touch.

— Jerome Swabb, Erie

Don't spend my tax dollars

on monument to Trump's ego

People talk about walls. The only walls that are needed are the ones we put in our homes or the ones people put outside their homes. People paid for those walls themselves. The walls are not being paid for by my taxes. First, it was $5 billion for "the wall." Now it is $8.6 billion for that wall. You could shore up Social Security or cut the cost of medicine.

This wall is being built as a monument to the man's ego. It is really great for a man who hasn't paid any taxes for 20 years, and the only people he admires are dictators. The money he wants to use for it would be taken out of the military, Social Security, Medicare and any humane program.

People say that I should respect the president, but I can remember my teachers saying if you want respect, you have to give respect. He doesn't earn respect.

— Stuart Salchli, Erie

Don't be a milquetoast,

stand up for something

Cartoonist H.T. Webster's rather pitiable character, Caspar Milquetoast, aka "the Timid Soul," sparked amusement during the dark days of the Great Depression and the Second World War. In our own times, such a wholly non-assertive personality may serve as a negative example — the portrayal of how we shouldn't be.

One man's political activist is another man's political busybody and vice-versa. Yet complete avoidance of conflict could betray either a kind of lackluster lack of thought or debilitating shyness.

Evidently, an equilibrium must be struck between brash irreverence and listless acceptance of prevailing authority. Neither heel-clicking submission to power nor angry lawlessness is acceptable in the context of constitutional democracy.

In fact, the flesh-and-blood Caspar Milquetoasts among us are to be recognized as being more pathetic than entertaining. They teach the bittersweet lesson that excessive bashfulness and participatory government don't go well together.

— William Dauenhauer, Willowick, Ohio

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